VisitEngland senior leaves London life to acquire hotel in the Lake District

A senior executive at VisitEngland has left life in London to acquire a hotel in the Lake District, swapping tourism promotion for customer-facing hotelkeeping.

Philip Nettleton has taken over Rickerby Grange Hotel near Keswick off a guide price of £830k and will relocate, together with his wife Charlotte, from Kingston-Upon-Thames for the new venture.

Rickerby Grange, built in the 1920s as the grange to Rickerby Farm, has 10 bedrooms, separate three-bedroom owners’ flat, gardens and car parking. Former owners Des and Carol Taylorson are retiring.

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Haydn Spedding, associate director, hotels agency at the Manchester office of Colliers International, secured the deal and said it reflected the ongoing appeal of the Lake District National Park hospitality sector.

He commented: “Philip’s knowledge of the many work and lifestyle attractions of the Lake District through his work at Visit England played a key role in helping him and Charlotte to decide to relocate by acquiring Rickerby Grange.

“We now have offers or definite interest from credible buyers in almost all of the hotels and guest houses on our books in the North Lakes area. The Lake District continues to be Colliers’ most productive region for hospitality sector deals in the UK, with this being the latest of more than 30 sales in the past two years.”